Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T00:23:18.808Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

KNOWLEDGE-HOW: INTERROGATIVES AND FREE RELATIVES

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Joshua Habgood-Coote
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

It has been widely accepted since Stanley and Williamson (2001) that the only linguistically acceptable semantic treatments for sentences of the form ‘S knows how to V’ involve treating the wh-complement ‘how to V’ as an interrogative phrase, denoting a set of propositions. Recently a number of authors have suggested that the ‘how to V’ phrase denotes not a proposition, but an object. This view points toward a prima facie plausible non-propositional semantics for knowledge-how, which treats ‘how to V’ as a free relative noun phrase. In this paper I argue that the free relative semantics is implausible. I show that linguistic phenomena which seem to support a free relative semantics can be explained by the supporter of an interrogative semantics, and demonstrate that standard linguistic tests strongly suggest that ‘how to V’ has an interrogative reading, and no free relative reading.

Type
Articles
Information
Episteme , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 2018 , pp. 183 - 201
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abbott, B. 2013. ‘Linguistic Solutions to Philosophical Problems: The Case of Knowing How.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 27: 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, J. L. 1956. ‘A Plea for Excuses.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 57: 1–30.Google Scholar
Bach, K. 2012. ‘Review: Jason Stanley: Know How.’ Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/29390-know-how-2/.Google Scholar
Baker, C. 1968. ‘Indirect Questions in English.’ Doctoral dissertation, University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Baker, C. 1995. English Syntax, 2nd edition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bengson, J. and Moffett, M. 2007. ‘Know-how and Concept Possession.’ Philosophical Studies, 136: 31–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bengson, J. and Moffett, M. (eds) 2011a. ‘Two Conceptions of Mind and Action: Knowing How and the Philosophical Theory of Intelligence.’ In Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, pp. 3–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bengson, J. and Moffett, M. (eds) 2011b. ‘Non-Propositional Intellectualism.’ In Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, pp. 161–95. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bengson, J., Moffett, M. and Wright, J. 2009. ‘The Folk on Knowing How.’ Philosophical Studies, 142: 387–401.Google Scholar
Besson, C. Ms. ‘Knowing-how, Modality, and Instrumental Norms of Action.’Google Scholar
Bhatt, R. 2006. Covert Modality in Non-finite Contexts. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bresnan, J. and Grimshaw, J. 1978. ‘The Syntax of Free Relatives in English.’ Linguistic Inquiry, 9: 331–91.Google Scholar
Brogaard, B. 2008. ‘Knowledge-the and Propositional Attitude Ascriptions.’ Grazer Philosophische Studien, 77: 147–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brogaard, B. 2009. ‘What Mary did Yesterday: Reflections on Knowledge-wh.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 78: 439–67.Google Scholar
Brown, D. 1971. ‘Knowing How and Knowing That, What.’ In Wood, O. P. and Pitcher, G. (eds), Ryle, pp. 213–48. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Brown, J. 2013. ‘Knowing-how: Linguistics and Cognitive Science.’ Analysis, 73: 220–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, J. A. and Pritchard, D. 2015. ‘Knowledge-How and Epistemic Luck.’ Noûs, 49: 440–53.Google Scholar
Cath, Y. 2011. ‘Knowing How without Knowing That.’ In Bengson, J. and Moffett, M. (eds), Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, pp. 113–35. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cath, Y. 2015. ‘Revisionary Intellectualism and Gettier.’ Philosophical Studies, 172: 7–27.Google Scholar
Devitt, M. 2011. ‘Methodology and the Nature of Knowing How.’ Journal of Philosophy, 108: 205–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ditter, A. 2016. ‘Why Intellectualism Still Fails.’ The Philosophical Quarterly, 66: 500–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douskos, C. 2013. ‘The Linguistic Argument for Intellectualism.’ Synthese, 190: 2325–40.Google Scholar
Farkas, K. 2016. ‘Practical Know-wh.’ Noûs (Early Access). doi: 10.1111/nous.12152.Google Scholar
Friedman, J. 2013. ‘Question-directed Attitudes.’ Philosophical Perspectives, 27: 145–74.Google Scholar
Ginzburg, J. 2011. ‘How to Resolve ‘How to’.’ In Bengson, J. and Moffett, M. (eds), Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, pp. 215–41. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Glick, E. 2011. ‘Two Methodologies for Evaluating Intellectualism.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 83: 398–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, A. I. 1967. ‘A Causal Theory of Knowing.’ Journal of Philosophy, 64: 357–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groenendijk, J. and Stockhof, M. 1984. Studies on the semantics of questions and the pragmatics of answers. Amsterdam: Institute for Logic, Language & Computation (ILLC). University of Amsterdam PhD thesis. http://dare.uva.nl/record/123669.Google Scholar
Hornsby, J. 1980. Actions. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Hornsby, J. 2011. ‘Ryle's Knowing-How, and Knowing How to Act.’ In Bengson, J. and Moffett, M. (eds), Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, pp. 80–100. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huddleston, R. and Pullum, G. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kornblith, H. 2008. ‘Knowledge Needs No Justification.’ In Smith, Q. (ed.), Epistemology: New Essays, pp. 5–24. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Masto, M. 2010. ‘Questions, Answers, and Knowledge-wh.’ Philosophical Studies, 147: 395–413.Google Scholar
Michaelis, L. 2011. ‘Knowledge Ascriptions by Logical Construction.’ In Bengson, J. and Moffett, M. (eds), Knowing How: Essays on Knowledge, Mind, and Action, pp. 261–83. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Michaelson, E. Ms. ‘Skill in Epistemology II: Skill and Know-how.’ Philosophy Compass, 11: 650–60.Google Scholar
Moore, A. 1997. Points of View. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pavese, C. 2013. The Unity and Scope of Knowledge. Doctoral Dissertation, Rutgers University. https://rucore.libraries.rutgers.edu/rutgers-lib/41893/.Google Scholar
Pavese, C. 2016. ‘Skill in Epistemology II: Skill and Know-how.’ Philosophy Compass, 11: 650–60.Google Scholar
Pavese, C. 2017. ‘Know-how and Gradability.’ Philosophical Review, 126: 3.Google Scholar
Poston, T. 2009. ‘Know How to Be Gettiered?’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 79: 743–7.Google Scholar
Roberts, C. 2009. ‘Know-how: A Compositional Approach.’ In Hinrichs, E. and Nerbonne, J. (eds), Theory and Evidence in Semantics, pp. 183–213. Stanford, CA: CSLI Press.Google Scholar
Rumfitt, I. 2003. ‘Savoir Faire.’ Journal of Philosophy, 100: 158–66.Google Scholar
Ryle, G. 2009. The Concept of Mind. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Schaffer, J. 2009. ‘Knowing the Answer Redux: Replies to Brogaard and Kallestrup.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 78: 477–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snowdon, P. 2004. ‘Knowing How and Knowing That: A Distinction Reconsidered.’ Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 104: 1–29.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. 2011a. ‘Knowing (How).’ Noûs, 45: 207–38.Google Scholar
Stanley, J. 2011b. Know How. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanley, J. and Williamson, T. 2001. ‘Knowing How.’ Journal of Philosophy, 98: 411–44.Google Scholar
Weatherson, B. 2016. ‘Intellectual Skill and the Rylean.’ The Philosophical Quarterly (Early Access). doi: 10.1093/pq/pqw051.Google Scholar
White, A. 1982. The Nature of Knowledge. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Wiggins, D. 2012. ‘Practical Knowledge: Knowing How To and Knowing That.’ Mind, 121: 97–130.Google Scholar
Zwicky, A. and Sadock, J. 1975. ‘Ambiguity Tests and How to Fail Them.’ In Kimball, J. (ed.), Syntax and Semantics 4, pp. 1–35. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar